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next generation gpu's

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31 Jul 2010
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122
hi could anyone tell me if there are any new graphics cards on the horizon? reason i ask is im looking to buy a new gaming rig and dont know whether to wait till after christmas if there are new cards gonna be out. when i could get the rig im looking at now much cheaper, how much cheaper would a £1200 sytem, today, be in 4-5 months time?
 
There is always new hardware in the horizon.

If you wait for the next big thing to come out in the component world, you'll literally be waiting forever.

hi i understand that but is 4-5 months a long time in pc terms?? lol any idea? has anyone heard about any new gpus coming out soon? any links? anyone? lol
 
The next big graphics card release is supposed to be in November when AMD/ATI release their new "Southern Islands" chips.

These are expected to be built on the existing 40mn process, but will use a newer design so perform better that the current 5000 series.

As for after christmas - Intel and AMD are releasing brand new (and supposedly very powerful) new platforms called "sandy bridge" and "bulldozer" respectively in Q1 2011. If you waited for these, you would get more CPU power for your money - but for gaming the boost will not be particularly significant (as almost all games are limited by the GPU in a decent gaming rig).

As for your question "how much cheaper would a £1200 sytem, today, be in 4-5 months time?", its difficult to say. If you go for exactly the same components - then not much TBH. The CPU and motherboard will almost certain stay the same price during this period, the RAM is anyones guess and the GPU will go down in price (maximum to expect is probably ~£80). The other components generally don't change price much with time - many just get updated.

However, if you re-evaluate your built in a few months time (after AMD bulldozer and Intel Sandy Bridge have been released) then I bet you will be able to construct a system that has the performance of a £1200 system now for closer to £1000.
 
I think the trick whenever building a new rig is to assess what you'll be using it for and build accordingly. I had my previous system for pretty much 3 1/2 years and it ran pretty much everything I threw at it till I decided to just go and get an i7 setup.

Of course your budget will play an integral part, but if you're talking £1200 on a system, you can pretty much bet that if you're smart about your purchases you won't need to upgrade for a good while.
 
If you need it now then I'd get it now. There's no point in waiting, unless new stuff is being released in like, a weeks time or something. I got my i7 rig a few weeks after they'd released the chips so I was confident my rig wouldn't be outdated immediately.

If I were you and wanted a gaming rig, I'd get one now. Just get a big PSU (750/850W+) so you can SLI/Crossfire in the future. It's probably the best way to add oomph to a gaming rig for a small price. I recently added a second GTX 275 to my rig for £80, and it isn't too far off a GTX 480 - a ~£400 card.
 
Buying PC hardware is like chasing your tail. There's always something bigger and better out in 3 months. And new hardware can be more troublesome than stuff that's been proven for a few months.

Get the best deal you can now, and don't concern yourself too much with what's on the way.
 
Buy now and enjoy. If something better comes along (which it always does), then sell your gpu if you feel the need to upgrade. :)

And so the merry go round goes round again. :D
 
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i bought (well mum paid :p ) my rig middle of feb so 6 months ago, think it was £2,506, i still have it in my shopping basket and its now showing £2,363 so its got £143 cheaper BUT my vertex LE that i paid £310 for is down to £188 :o also my pair of 5870 vapor-x's are listed @ £339 each but they arnt avi on OCuK anymore and equivelents are around £280-£300 now
 
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I hope new cards are due out soon, I'd like to wait till the christmas period before upgrading my card, as I'd hate to grab a 480 now only to see a new card come out 2-3 months from now.
 
I'd probably to be tempted to wait and see what the new 6XXX series will bring unless you are in some mad rush to get it now. As others have said you can end up waiting forever BUT can also buy too late and end up with a system that has no upgrade path.
 
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